Category: Video

Space, the final frontier, was the theme of this week’s appearance on Hawaii News Now, chosen in honor of UC Berkeley astrophysicist Alex Filippenko. Filippenko, who is known worldwide for his scientific achievements as well as his efforts to bring astrophysics to the masses, will be our guest on Bytemarks Cafe...

On this week’s “Geek Beat” segment on Hawaii News Now, we featured more locally-grown apps. Of course, we could barely scratch the surface in explaining each, so here’s more background on RouteView HNL, Pic-A-Papaya, and The Plant Doctor. RouteView HNL This app for iOS allows a simple and elegant way...

This morning’s “Hawaii Geek Beat” segment on Hawaii News Now focused on a couple of new offerings from Facebook as the massive social networking site celebrated its tenth birthday. First, there were the “Look Back” videos that compiled a photographic retrospective of users’ history on Facebook (here’s mine, fittingly starring...

This morning’s “Hawaii Geek Beat” segment on Hawaii News Now focused on the increasing popularity and promise of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or drones. While drones are frequently associated with military operations, the commercial applications of the technology are even more interesting. Over the holiday season, online retailer Amazon made headlines...

I work at Dole Cannery in Iwilei, an industrial neighborhood just outside downtown Honolulu. The area has seen more and more development over the years, with warehouses being replaced by business offices and high-rise apartment buildings. Along Iwilei Road, a block away from Aala Park (also known for homeless activity)...

Happy New Year! With the arrival of 2014, I’m resolving to blog more often… a resolution I’ve failed to keep for the past several years, but it’s worth another shot. The first thing I was looking forward to share in 2014 is my complete 1 Second Everyday video for last...

This past weekend, Honolulu hosted the first-ever “IconLocal” in support of The Noun Project. The workshop brought together local designers and civic-minded geeks with local community service providers to develop a set of symbols and icons to support the homeless and the groups dedicated to helping them. “IconLocal Hawaii” was...

Last week I was honored to be a part of a panel discussion that explored the news business in the era of social media. The venue was the weekly live roundtable program “Insights” on PBS Hawaii, hosted by Dan Boylan (who is also a political columnist for MidWeek). My fellow panelists...

UH journalism professor Gerald Kato recently dug up this old video that SHOPO, the Honolulu police officers’ union, made in 1995 during the fight over the Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA), or HRS 92F, which defined public records and codified the public’s right to access them in Hawaii. They argued...

One of my favorite New Year’s traditions is mochitsuki, or mochi making, which is a Japanese tradition that’s common in Hawaii. Last Saturday, the Jodo Mission of Hawaii in Makiki (where I serve on the Board of Directors) held its annual mochitsuki, or mochi making event, which puts out hundreds...

Last weekend’s bon dance at the Jodo Mission of Hawaii in Makiki, where I serve on the board, afforded an excellent opportunity to create a time-lapse video of the event. I used only my iPhone, the free version of the “iMotion HD” app [iTunes], and iMovie. And I was helped...

When my friend and fellow geek Burt Lum suggested we start a local chapter of Hacks/Hackers, I was initially skeptical. Frankly, both of us have an unhealthy tendency to jump into the latest cool tool or group, and we’d just had a Sunlight Foundation meetup. But when I finally looked...

Globetrotting dancer Matt Harding has, at long last, posted his latest “Where the Hell is Matt?” video. And among the many clips making up the montage, we see him attempting a fire dance in Kihei on Maui. The two-second scene appears along with other dances in places ranging from Texas to...

This past weekend’s opening college football game between the UH Manoa Warriors and the Colorado University Buffaloes was broadcast live on ESPN. And during one of the commercial breaks, both universities got some airtime to show off their stuff. For UH, the theme of the day was “Lifestyle.”

Square is a startup that hopes to do nothing less than transform the way people pay for goods and services. The company was started by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey (who recently returned to Twitter while continuing to lead Square), someone obviously no stranger to disruptive technologies. A tiny, cheap card...

The first ever (and hopefully annual) Eisa Drum Festival took place on Saturday on the Great Lawn of Kapiolani Community College. It was a great event, and lead organizer Shari Tamashiro — along with advisors Norman Kaneshiro and Derek Ichiro Shiroma, and countless other volunteers and performers — deserves a standing...

A video is making the rounds on YouTube, Facebook, message boards and blogs, said to depict five unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, hovering over the Makua military reservation on the island of Oahu. It spread like wildfire through online communities focused on everything from aliens to government conspiracies, then started...

It’s not the world’s largest manapua, but it sure looks like it could be. A group of local media makers documented the construction of a massive, 13,300-calorie manapua in a video titled,“Epic Kaukau Time: Manpua Man Manapua.” (Rated PG-13, per Cynthia Hoskins, so click with care.) The “Epic Kaukau Time”...

“Where the Hell is Matt?” It’s a question for the ages. Or at least those of an age to remember the earliest days of web video. Who The Hell is Matt? Six years ago, former video game designer Matt Harding decided to travel the world. A video clip of him...

The Online News Association was founded in 1999, and I signed up pretty early in its history, full of ideas for Islenews.com (which became HawaiiNews.com which is now HawaiiStar.com). My dream of building a robust grassroots local news site is still just a dream, but fortunately, the ONA has soldiered...